Dodgers-Padres comparisons to Yankees-Red Sox rivalry are way off the mark

It has been a tense few weeks between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres as the NL West foes have squared off for the first time in 2025.

The Dodgers and Padres have played six games in the last 10 days. They'll have one more game Thursday at Dodger Stadium before the current series wraps up. Based on how things are going, rising tensions seem due to boil over by then.

There have been eight (8) hit batsmen over the last six games between the Dodgers and Padres. Players and managers from both dugouts have taken exception to some of the actions from the other side.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was ejected from Tuesday's game by home plate umpire Trip Gibson after trying to get an explanation for the warnings issued to both dugouts.

Dodgers-Padres drawing comparisons to Yankees-Red Sox

An intense series has cause quite a stir from the baseball world. Over the last few days, MLB fans and media have been elevating the matchup as one of the game's best.

MLB Network analyst Siera Santos called Dodgers-Padres the " best rivalry in baseball," while Joel Sherman asserted on the air that Dodgers-Padres is the new Yankees-Red Sox.

"This is now the Yankees and Red Sox in this sport. These two teams despise each other," Sherman said on MLB Tonight. "They've met a couple of times in the postseason now. The proximity of where they are...It's clear the Padres are not wanting to be the little brother, and building up payroll, and building up stars."

Dodgers-Padres is not an elite rivlary

Have things been chippy between the Dodgers and padres recently? Definitely. But I still don't think this is the rivalry that some people are making it out to be. I'd be hesitant to even call it a rivalry at all.

Just because the Padres feel threatened by the Dodgers and feel the need to puff out their chest doesn't make this an exciting rivalry. The beef is entirely one-sided.

As Dodgers infielder Max Muncy recently said, the Dodgers have one rival and it's the San Francisco Giants. It has been that way for decades, even centuries, and it's not going to change...No matter what the Padres bring to the table.

"The Padres bring everything that is in a rivalry, but you only have one rival," Muncy said on Foul Territory. "I don't like when people say you have rivals. If you have a rival, it's your counterpart. That's always going to be the Giants for the Dodgers."

At the end of the day, the Los Angeles Dodgers are baseball's new evil empire. Every fanbase is jealous of what the Dodgers have built. They have homegrown talent, they outspend everybody else in free agency, and they are almost every player's preferred free agent landing spot.

The Dodgers are the best-run and most succesful organization in all of baseball at the moment.

When you're on top, people are going to hate you. And the Dodgers are on top of baseball by a wide margin, even if they don't currently have the best win-loss-record in the league.

Padres fans having animosity for the Dodgers is no different than the 28 other fanbases across the league; it just feels more impassioned because the Padres are outshined in their own market.

No matter how heated these games get and no matter how many times the Padres attempt to start a beef by intentionally drilling a Dodgers batter, the real rivalry is between the Dodgers and Giants. That rivalry dates back to the late 19th century, when both clubs were based in New York City. It's not going anywhere.